The use of LED's as a light source to provide indoor or outdoor illumination is known. Such LED's are usually mounted directly on a heat sink which is exposed to ambient air whereby to dissipate heat generated from the LED's. The life span of LED's depends on the effectiveness in the dissipation of the heat they generate. Usually, lamps constructed with LED's have an aluminum casing which forms the head of the lamp and LED's are integrated into the casing. When the LED's are defective or when its life span has expired, the complete head of the lamp needs to be replaced resulting in material waste and costly repairs. When LED's are used outdoors in a lighting fixture, their life span is quite short being exposed to the elements.
It is also known to replace standard light bulbs by LED lamps mounted with a screw base adapted to fit into the screw socket of the existing light bulb. Usually, such LED lamps do not effectively dissipate heat and again the LED's are directly exposed to the ambient air and are affected by rain, snow and the sun's rays. Reference is made to the following prior art patent documentation. U.S. Patent Application No. 2009/0267509 (Broitzman), Korean Patent Application No. 2009/0036783 (Yoo), Chinese Patent Application Nos. 201237114 (Hsu), 201225571 (Wenyan), 101122378 (Sun et al), as well as International PCT Application Nos. WO2009/131372 (Lee), WO2008/136652 (Vargas) and WO2008/100124 (Vargas).
It would be advantageous to change existing light bulbs used in sealed optical street lamps with LED lights whereby to extend the life cycle of the light source while at the same time resulting in a substantial energy saving. If the life cycle of the light source is extended, then the maintenance cost of the lamp is also greatly reduced. Known sealed optical street lamps, such as those known using Cobra heads typically use light bulbs having a durability of approximately 3,000 to 5,000 hours. They also consume about 132 watts. If such could be substituted by a suitable LED light source, the durability of such light source would increase to about 50,000 to 70,000 hours and the energy consumption would go down to about 35 watts. Accordingly, there would result an important saving in energy as well as in maintenance costs.